Supervalu will cut hundreds of warehouse jobs in Oregon, Washington

More than 200 employees at a Clackamas County grocery distribution center will lose their family-wage jobs when the facility’s owner closes it and two other Northwest warehouses.

Supervalu will replace large distribution centers near Milwaukie and in Auburn and Tacoma with two huge facilities in western Washington – one in Ridgefield and one in Centralia.

“We think it’s a bad decision. It’s a loss for Oregon,” said Gene Blackburn, secretary and treasurer for Teamsters Local 206, which represented 200 workers who will lose their jobs at Supervalu’s warehouse near Milwaukie.

That facility had been owned and operated by Unified Grocers, formerly United Grocers, which sold to Supervalu in 2017. The distribution center serves independent grocers around the region.

Supervalu hasn’t said how many people will lose their jobs altogether but Blackburn said there are many others working in the Clackamas facility who aren’t represented by his union, plus hundreds more workers in the Auburn and Tacoma facilities slated for closure.

The Oregon jobs typically paid $25 to $27 hourly, according to Blackburn.

“They were good paying, family-wage jobs that supported families in the community,” he said.

A letter Supervalu chief executive Sean Griffin sent to employees last week, obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive, indicates that Supervalu will build a new distribution center in Centralia and add nearly 500,000 square feet to an existing facility in Ridgefield.

The letter doesn’t indicate a time frame for the closures but one affected employee said he was told the layoffs will take effect this spring.

Supervalu spokesman Jeff Swanson said his company will offer incentives for workers to stay employed at the existing warehouses until the new facilities open and said they can transfer to the new distribution centers if they want.

“We obviously would welcome our associates staying with the company and are talking with them about what those opportunities might look like going forward,” he said in a phone message.

For most employees that would likely mean relocating. The Clackamas County facility is more than 30 miles from Ridgefield; Centralia is more than 50 miles from Tacoma and nearly 70 miles from Auburn.

Unemployment rates are near historic lows in both Oregon (4.1 percent) and Washington (4.3 percent). But layoffs have continued in both states when individual businesses falter or consolidate into larger organizations.

Many of Supervalu’s Clackamas County employees had been with the company for years, according to the Teamsters’ Blackburn, and had planned their careers in expectation of being able to retire from the company. Now, he said they feel like the rug has been pulled out from under them.

“We’re certainly hope they reconsider,” Blackburn said. “I think (the chance of that) is remote, but I think it’s the right thing to do.”